With the emergence of small and mobile computing devices, the U.S. population, as well as the population of most developed countries has become increasingly mobile. Business persons frequently work on the road, law enforcement officers collect and upload data in the field, technicians (such as underground detecting personnel) perform their duties in the outdoors and students study and learn in out-classroom environments. In addition, cloud data storage and network accessible services, such as social networks and mail servers, have become increasing popular. Consequently, many individuals today have a daily need to remotely access data that is located in another place, while said individuals are on the go. This has led to a variety of problems.
First, there is typically a finite amount of cloud storage space available through a cloud data storage provider. Increasing the amount of cloud data storage space desired usually results in greater fees, which can be cost prohibitive. Second, could data storage is only as reliable as the network connection of the consumer. When the consumer is located in a place with no network connection or a bad connection, the consumer will have little or limited access to his data on the cloud. This is a common problem for law enforcement in the field, and technicians performing their duties in the outdoors. Third, there is an increasingly prevalent issue with the security of cloud based data storage. Several high profile security break-ins of cloud based data storage facilities have brought this problem to the forefront for consumers. Fourth, current solutions for taking a consumer's data on a mobile device have suffered from data safety issues, namely, the safety of the device on which the data is stored. Computing devices often break down or simply malfunction when exposed to water, vapor, or high and low temperatures. This has resulted in consumers being timid in bringing their important data with them on mobile devices when in a rugged situation. Fifth, and finally, there is a well-known problem that has arisen with file format compatibility among different file systems, which is particularly topical in cloud storage environments. This problem causes lost time and annoyance to consumers.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art, and more specifically, there is a need for a more efficient and improved system and method for managing and storing data.